Life Is Everywhere
When you not looking life is abundant, perhaps it is the heat that brings much right indoors to be gently ushered right back out. Now you might be curious to know what I am talking about.
Against the black tile floors was what I thought dental floss dropped that had been used, picking it up going to the kitchen it moved! Setting it down on the sink top to my surprise not dental floss, but not clue as to what this is either. Perhaps a spider, or stick insect.
On researching the closest identification found is Net-casting spider - Deinopis more I cannot say, taken out into the garden and set free once photographed around midnight.
Next morning on fetching coffee, greeted by a moth..., oh an ant in close proximity, using identification tool appears to be the part of Diaphania indica species.
Before getting outdoors during this last week we have had a snake in the lounge, ushered outdoors quickly! Cockroaches the size of tanks parading around along with a few rats, now those we have to take care of getting outdoors or dead quickly, rats or mice attract snakes no go territory sharing with either.
Let's get into the garden, yes watch where you walk. Blue Pansy butterfly - Junonia oenone oenone, plays on the lawn with dandelions flowering many and other flowers in full bloom the garden has picked up over past week with more butterflies in attendance flitting around.
Most don't realize, stand outdoors and watch butterflies being territorial over their garden, it is amazing to watch them chasing another away.
Within a meter or two was this citrus swallowtail (Papilio demodocus) butterfly which never settled, dancing around the curry tree in the garden where I see them arrive from now through autumn.
Close proximity still shaded area African banana slug (Elisolimax flavescens) on route.
Pin-tailed Whydah bird is still at chasing the ladies, knows no end to his antics. In this sweltering heat you would think he would take a break, no not yet only once that grand plumage disappears will be go back to being normal for awhile.
On entering the house once again in the kitchen treated to a surprise attack of a praying mantis and potter wasp Synagris analis which resides within the home on occasion, yes when you live in Africa expect to share your home!
The big black wasps that come indoors have never bothered any member of the family to date, the small red wasps will sting once started..., try stop them as my husband found out last week leaving his hand swollen for a couple of days! Mantis did not get that meal so I opened the window to allow him to short cut out of the house.
Thanks for enjoying the natural world I share around the home, also within one cannot lock up everything in sweltering heat, expect visitors and watch where you walk all the time! Have a wonderful weekend from sunny South Africa. Your turn!
Wild nature in towns and villages host @bucipuci on behalf of Thematic Challenge No. 2/2
All photography my own using Canon Powershot SX730 HS camera. Any queries or requests please drop a comment below or make contact with me, have a wonderful day! Photography without tripod, go with the flow wherever life takes you. NB: Amateur photographer in nature, keep smiling!
Thought for Today: "Knowledge is like a garden, if you don't cultivate it you cannot harvest it. - African proverb
Communities to Enjoy On Hive: #lifestylelounge @hive-114105, #qurator @hive-102880, #featheredfriends @hive-106444, #wednesdaywalk @hive-155530, #amazingnature @hive-127788, #alwaysaflower @hive-154065, #feelgood @hive-19093, #theterminal @hive-101265, #ladiesofhive @hive-124452, #silverbloggers @hive-106316
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A fellow South African nature-lover! I'm so jealous you found an ogre-faced spider, they're difficult to come by so you're very lucky! Wonderful photos!
!PIZZA
I tend to inspect/photograph everything that moves around the home, thanks for further information. Now released back into the garden perhaps one day get lucky enough to see more.
Excellent post, @joanstewart!
Kudos!!!
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Hardly move without my camera, right place at the right time....
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Wow, that spider! 😱 Thank you for sharing great content!
Most unusual and pretty long legs, now you know what happens when you don't have your glasses on a night 🤣
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Wow those are lovely shot you took
My home isn't only mine, so many other little inhabitants around each corner.
Oh, that’s so detailed. Stunning close-ups, how did you achieve that? ?
Really interesting, don’t you just love the diversity to which we are witness.
I love Africa ❤️💕❤️💕❤️❤️
Run around with small camera in my pocket permanently, these were taken of the course of the last five days. Yup we have much to be grateful for!
!LUV
Appreciate the visit @ackhoo and @qurator a community that has been here since the beginning! You are an amazing Team.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you, @joanstewart! :) A good weekend to you too!!
WOW so many visitors both in and outside the house
I remember having many indoor visitors when I lived in Africa
Thanks for joining Wednesday Walk :), I truly enjoy exploring the world virtually each Wednesday seeing walks from all around the globe and feeling I am there and experiencing it all myself, such as I did in your post just now :)
Warm climate appears to invite everyone indoors, we learned to live with it. Are times it becomes a little much....
!LUV
Yes I adapted to it as well to the most part
Snakes not so much
Snakes always shown the door, if in doubt call out specialist to move them.
With extreme heat after rain many homes have had to call in a snake catcher this summer, better to capture and release than kill.
I do agree capture and release is the best way to go
So many critters .. cool!
!tipu
All shapes and sizes, small things in life are amazing! Thanks for the tip.
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These are some nice visitors, Joan, and some which I wouldn't want to be inside 😉
The spider looks scary, almost like an alien with its long legs and I love the mantis - have seen only one in nature yet ... how does the banana slug taste?
Great post and lovely photos as always, Joan 😀
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Spider had amazing markings, poor guy almost went into the dirt bin, lucky little movement made me take a closer look.
Mantis comes in variety of sizes and colours, he almost got lucky, it would have been interesting if he caught the wasp. Slugs and snails are for boys to taste 🤡.....
So much moving during the heat, had a tree frog we released outdoors, found in the bathroom, we don't see them very often!
One does not have to travel far to see life, just take a closer look around you.
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We have the same taste in clothes.
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We don't have as many insects here as you have, and they are not that big. Here you have to search for insects, at least I have to because I don't know much about them 😁
But this year I want to do a little bit more macro photography what means I will have to take many closer looks around me 😉
!PIZZA and !BEER - sounds like a nice dinner :)
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Back to patience, find a patch sit down and wait, look into 1M radius, in a park or up the mountain.
Slow movements to focus on your part or they gone, in cooler conditions they don't move as fast 😅 so I have been told!
Have fun, enjoy a coffee and they will come.
!LUV
!BEER
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This year I want to try learning to be patient. I think it's time to learn it because when I retire it will be too late, because then I have so many other things to do 😁 !LOLZ
!PIZZA and !BEER - sounds like a nice dinner :)
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If I were hike that mountain of yours if no one else around would spend at least an hour up there taking it all in.
Lakes and dams attract a lot, thermos of coffee a bench and camera, what could be better unless it is freezing cold!
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Since this pandemic began the people are just everywhere and still they are. As soon as most snow is gone I will hike up the mountain where my parents live. There I know some places where no one will be around.
And I mostly have tea with me, don't need to go to the toilet as often as when I drink coffee 😂
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This is exactly how I imagined the competition article :-). Wild nature in the kitchen :-D.
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Kitchen will also always have gecko, flies, mosquito, cockroaches scurrying around. These were a little more entertaining, happens when we have extreme heat or insects attracted to light.
Thanks so much!
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We are spared similar "creatures" here in the north :-)
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We see some weird and wonderful insects, very seasonal!
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Thank you for that @joanstewart I am glad you did not take and include a snake picture, not my best friends are they lol
It is awesome to know about territorial butterflies, I never knew that!
Snakes are beautiful when they outside, no I am not too happy when the slither into the homes.
Butterflies behave similar to other species where they protect an area especially during mating season.
I don't mind snakes as long as I can view from a distance!
Yes that makes sense, come mating so many get territorial
Some do have nasty experiences when snakes hide indoors or in garden boxes, nature will always remind you they share the space.
Interesting to watch life right outside your door, get to know them better, appreciate life cycles.
!Happy Valentine's Day
Absolutely I prefer to think we share nature's space, but yes it pays to be careful!
Watch where you walk, leave nothing behind but footprints. Nature teaches us much, free of charge!
Nature teaches us so much, and yes, the best bit is it is Free😁
A very interesting garden @joanstewart with all your little animals of which some I would not like to meet either. It is also an eye opener to sit and look at the garden for a while to actually see the activity taking place with the butterflies, wasps, dragon flies and birds etc. They are very restful and entraining at the same time. But, I have never seen a Pin-Tailed Whydah Bird. Are there many in South Africa?
Unfortunately snakes and rats are part of nature and I often think when I am knee deep in the plants of snakes. So for that reason I put on my long walking trousers and walking boots just in case.
I really thought the net-casting spider was a heap of sticks! Never would I imagine that it was actually a spider.
Always something going on, I never think of protection in the garden with snakes normally watch where I walk and put my hands.
First time I have seen this spider, don't usually touch, except in this case now picking up the spider thinking it was dental floss I had twisted up to throw in the bin reminder to self, wear you glasses.
Pin-tailed whydah is sub-Saharan Africa little song bird, he dresses up and takes over the garden chasing everything away during mating season. We see them in different parts of the country, this is the first couple of years I have had him ruling my garden during courtship season.
Africa boasts a good variety of long-tailed birds, widow bird species, whydah birds, wood hoopoes, mousebirds, sugarbirds one never knows where or when you may see them.
!BEER for our summer heat!
Thank you the cool beer is most refreshing at the end of an extra hot day.
Does the Pin-tailed whydah sing during this mating season?
And yes, wearing glasses is always a good idea but I put them down when thinking of something and forget where they are, which means there is a time wasted looking for them, damn😊
Pin-tail has a cheeky chirp throughout the mating season, we hear him from sunrise to sunset, he really has stamina!
Glasses hang around my neck all day, night time I never wear them, not working on the computer or camera normally, was very excited to learn from fellow SA that this is a rare sighting.
I have heard and seen videos on this type of spider in Australia, look out and you may have luck seeing one over there.
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You have so much beautiful nature around you and they all seem to love you 😊
Every garden has it, plant indigenous and they will come. Have a great day and thanks for visiting.
This is true @joanstewart and you have a great week 😊
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Thanks @dna.org garden is alive and well with all creepy crawlies and flying objects at the moment.
The adventures at your home are quite entertaining from the outside looking in but I would never be caught walking barefoot - too many creepy critters! 👣👣
I enjoyed your post! @joanstewart🦋
Way too hot to wear closed shoes or boots, most move feeling vibration of humans, still walk bare foot and hope no wasps are in the lawn or something I cannot see 😁
Thanks for visiting and enjoying.
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I enjoyed reading this Joan. You have some cool creatures there. Do you know what kind of snake it was?
That Pansy Blue butterfly is absolutely gorgeous, I've never seen one of those, they must be further north from me, I'll look up their distribution.
Where you see type within the content that is blue, it indicates a link to where one can research a little more detail.
Link takes you to Kloof Conservancy - Steve Woodhall - President of the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa offers insight and detail.
Thanks Joan, I did go back and gave it a read. I'm familiar with Steve Woodhall, he published some of the butterfly books of SA.
I need to actually learn more about the butterflies in different areas, I only know the Cape Town ones really well from butterfly surveys.
Work associate of 19 years Allan Plowes had an interesting large collection, enthusiastically shared knowledge,
I believe his collection was donated to the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa by his son before he moved to the UK. Acknowledgements to Allan Plowes in "What's that Butterfly?: A starter’s guide to butterflies of South Africa" By Steve Woodhall
Think it was red-lipped herald snake, once sliding door opened it was out in a flash!
Butterflies visiting at the moment are varied, here on the South Coast of Durban we see greater numbers end of February into March.
!Happy Valentine's Day
I quite like red lipped heralds. They are one of the easily identifiable ones and generally not aggressive. I've handled a few, I'm glad they were able to escape through the sliding door and get back outside. Most snakes realise they made a mistake very quickly when they see a human approach them, shame we must be quite scary just size wise alone from their perspective.
It’s amazing what critters want to share one’s home. Delightful photos Joan. Interesting spider in your first photo. I could deal with them all except the snake. 😧
Snakes don't bother me too much, more often than not they are more scared of us.
Problem with development bringing rats into the area and many more cockroaches that give me the heebie-jeebies, have not used poisons or pesticides in years, they tempt me as neither are tolerated inside a home.
The cockroaches would be a worry as they can carry diseases. I’ve heard of folks finding them in apartments, unaware they are there until they move in. The nasty critters are difficult to get rid of.
I’m glad you don’t have the snake phobia I have and we don’t even have any poisonous snakes.
Living here one baits the cockroaches, switch on lights to make sure you don't step onto snakes moving around in dark outdoors. Not often but it does happen snakes in extreme heat will venture indoors, always keep an eye open for movement.
If you have phobias don't live in places where animals exist 😂, no such place in Africa!
Joan @joanstewart, I better stay in the colder climates as snakes don’t like snow and a cold winter. 😆
There are a few places, such as, Norway, New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii and Ireland with no snakes. According to Irish myth, St. Patrick surrounded the snakes and threw them off of the island and into the the sea. Apparently he achieved this feat by staying hungry for 45 days. Starving that long is not something I am up for. 😂 I believe we should share the earth with snakes, as with all creatures, as long as they stay away from me…far away.
When they find their way into the house, if uncertain in identifying, snake catchers will come out to remove them. Cold regions don't have the problem which makes them more appealing to live in.
Perhaps St Patrick made his way to New Zealand on the quiet, then sent all the snakes to Australia, not sure where all ours came from 😁we sure have a variety!
very beautiful work greetings and blessings success
Thanks for kind words and visit, have a wonderful day.